Clicking through some pictures of Larry Weinberg’s recent vacation, you’ll notice his trek to Nepal has a twist.
“A significant birthday was creeping up on me, and I wanted to do something physical that would be a nice goal, but wouldn’t kill me,” he said.
He survived that trip, and five years later set his sites for a return journey to mark another milestone birthday.
“2023 was another significant birthday for me I turned 80.”
“The country is so beautiful,” he said.
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But Larry’s trips to trek weren’t just for fun. Shortly before his first visit, he connected with Ten Friends, a Sisters non-profit working to improve the lives of the Nepali people. He’s now on the organization’s board.
“You can put a headstone, but that doesn’t do anybody any good essentially. But you can put up a library in somebody’s memory and that library is sort of an extension of that person in some sense,” Weinberg said.
Last month, he traveled to Khokatok for the unveiling. Dedicating the library in the memory of his parents, brother and a relative of the Nepalese individual connected to the Himalayan Education Center.
Before the unveiling, the library had to first get to the remote village, a challenging task.
“From Khandabari to Num is the jeep road from hell,” he said.
No Amazon Prime delivery either.
“It took 20 men with the poles and this cabinet being supported, physically carried to this town, then the books had to get the same treatment,” Weinberg said.
Thanks to the work Larry did stateside leading up to the trip, the village could host the dedication ceremony.
“You think of like sharks having a feeding frenzy, well these kids were having a book frenzy,” he said.
He says watching the village celebrate was an experience as rewarding as walking through the country’s mountain ranges full of 8,000 meters peaks.
“Just to see the looks on the kids faces,” he said. “You do good and you feel good, and ya hike and you feel better… Hopefully, a seed has been planted in that village that will grow.”
Want to hear more about Larry’s travels to Nepal, including a return trip to an orphanage?
You’re in luck!
Larry will be giving a talk Friday, Nov. 17, at the Deschutes Public Library’s main branch in downtown Bend beginning at 10 a.m.
You can find more information about the upcoming talk here.
